Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams

Tis almost four Months since you left your Native land and Embarked upon the Mighty
waters in quest of a Foreign Country. Altho I have not perticuliarly wrote to you
since yet you may be assured you have constantly been upon my Heart and mind.

It is a very dificult task my dear son for a tender parent to bring their mind to
part with a child of your years into a distant Land, nor could I have acquiesced in
such a seperation under any other care than that of the most Excellent parent and
Guardian who accompanied you. You have arrived at years capable of improving under
the advantages you will be like to have if you do but properly attend to them. They
are talents put into your Hands of which an account will be required of you hereafter,
and being possessd of one, two, or four, see to it that you double your numbers.

The most amiable and most usefull disposition in a young mind is diffidence of itself,
and this should lead you to seek advise and instruction from him who is your natural
Guardian, and will always counsel and direct you in the best manner both for your
present and future happiness. You are in possession of a natural good understanding
and of spirits unbroken by adversity, and untamed with care. Improve your understanding
for2 acquiring usefull knowledge and virtue, such as will render you an ornament to society,
an Honour to your Country, and a Blessing to your parents. Great Learning and superior
abilities, should you ever possess them, will be of little value and small Estimation,
unless Virtue, Honour, Truth and integrety are added to them. Adhere to those religious
Sentiments and principals which were early instilled into your mind and remember that
you are accountable to your Maker for all your words and actions. Let me injoin it
upon you
to attend constantly and steadfastly to the precepts and instructions of your Father
as you value the happiness of your Mother and your own welfare. His care and attention
to you render many things unnecessary for me to write which I might otherways do,
but the inadvertency and Heedlessness of youth, requires line upon line and precept
upon precept, and when inforced by the joint efforts of both parents will I hope have
a due influence upon your Conduct, for dear as you are to me, I had much rather you
should have found your Grave in the ocean you have crossd, or any untimely death crop
you in your Infant years, rather than see you an immoral profligate or a Graceless
child.

You have enterd early in life upon the great Theater of the world which is full of
temptations and vice of every kind. You are not wholy unacquainted with History, in
which you have read of crimes which your unexperienced mind could scarcly believe
credible. You have been taught to think of them with Horrour and to view vice as

a Monster of so frightfull Mein

That to be hated, needs but to be seen.

Yet you must keep a strict guard upon yourself, or the odious monster will soon loose
its terror, by becomeing familiar to you. The Modern History of our own times furnishes
as Black a list of crimes as can be paralleld in ancient time, even if we go back
to Nero, Caligula or Ceasar Borgia. Young as you are, the cruel war into which we
have been compelld by the Haughty Tyrant of Britain and the Bloody Emissarys of his
vengance may stamp upon your mind this certain Truth, that the welfare and prosperity
of all countries, communities and I may add individuals depend upon their Morals.
That Nation to which we were once united as it has departed from justice, eluded and
subverted the wise Laws which formerly governd it, sufferd the worst of crimes to
go unpunished, has lost its valour, wisdom and Humanity, and from being the dread
and terror of Europe, has sunk into derision and infamy.

But to quit political subjects, I have been greatly anxious for your safety having
never heard of the Frigate since she saild, till about a week ago, a New York paper
inform'd that she was taken and carried into Plimouth. I did not fully credit this
report, tho it gave me much uneasiness. I yesterday heard that a French vessel was
arrived at Portsmouth which brought News of the safe arrival of the Boston, but this
wants confirmation. I hope it will not be long before I shall be assertaind of your
safety. You must write me an account of your voyage, of your situation and of every
thing entertaining you can recollect. Your Sister and Brothers are well. The last
desire I would write for them, but I have not time by this opportunity. Your Sister
I chide for her neglegence in this way. I have wrote several times to your papa, hope
the Letters will not Miscarry. Let Stevens know his Mother and Friends are well.

[salute] Be assurd I am most affectionately yours.

Mr. Hardwick desires if such a thing as stocking weavers needles are to be had that
Stevens or you would procure 2 thousand No. 6 and convey with any thing your pappa
may have to send to me.

1. AA left a space for the day of the month but did not fill it in. From coincidences in
language, this, the first extant letter from a famous mother to a famous son, must
almost certainly have been written on or about the same day as AA's letter to JA of 10 June, preceding. Both letters were acknowledged by JA in his reply of 26 July, below; and both were thus, presumably, carried to France by Captain Barnes in the
Dispatch.

2. CFA emended this word to “by” in AA, Letters, 1840, p. 123, and in later printings. This may well be what AA intended to write.